The Week Ahead
(April 1, 2024)

The Week Ahead - Crickets

Recalling the summer vacation season and policymaking doldrums, only a WSLCB caucus meeting was scheduled and members had already cancelled meetings for the following week.

Here’s a look at cannabis-related policymaking events on the calendar in the week ahead.

Monday April 1st

At publication time, no cannabis-related policymaking events were scheduled.

Tuesday April 2nd

WSLCB - Board Caucus

On Tuesday at 10am PT, the weekly Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) Board Caucus was scheduled to recur.

  • [ Event Details ]
  • In addition to hearing a fairly comprehensive rulemaking update during their caucus meeting on Tuesday March 26th, members also discussed upcoming scheduling conflicts which would prevent the board from achieving quorum (audio - 3m, video - TVW, video - WSLCB).
    • The board eventually decided to cancel all of their meetings for the week beginning April 8th, including the monthly Executive Management Team (EMT) meeting.
      • The EMT meeting, during which staff leadership are able to be held accountable by providing public updates on the work of their divisions, does not require a quorum to convene as no formal board decisions are ever made.
      • The board cancelled the March EMT meeting and did not reschedule it.
      • Prior to 2022, WSLCB hosted EMT meetings weekly.  After frequently cancelling those events, the agency switched to a monthly cadence the following year.
    • It’s also Cannabis Observer’s understanding that agency staff intend to take up rulemaking to implement HB 1453 (“Providing a tax exemption for medical cannabis patients”), details of which had not been previously publicly mentioned.  Policy and Rules Manager Cassidy West conveyed via email:
      • “In terms of the implementation timeline, we are tentatively planning on filing the CR101 to initiate the rulemaking on 4/24, which would mean the CR-102 would likely be filed in June (6/19) and the public hearing would be 7/31. If after the public hearing a supplementary CR-102 is not required, then we plan to file the CR-103 on 8/14/24 and the rules would become effective on 9/14/24. Daniel Jacobs (cc’d) is the rules coordinator who will be leading this project.”
      • She added, “We are actively working on getting some guidance together to help with this regarding to CCRS.”

Wednesday April 3rd

At publication time, no cannabis-related policymaking events were scheduled.

Thursday April 4th

At publication time, no cannabis-related policymaking events were scheduled.

Friday April 5th

At publication time, no cannabis-related policymaking events were scheduled.

Information Set